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If Your Baby Can’t Tolerate Milk, Soy, or Hypoallergenic Formula it may be a Corn Allergy
August 19th, 2007 by Caryn Talty | 4,328 Views | 
10 Comments
Breast milk is best for a variety of reasons, but sometimes your baby weans early or the mother’s milk doesn’t get firmly established and supplementation is necessary. You resort to feeding your baby formula, and you are racked with guilt by this because the pressure to breastfeed is so strong. It is not so rare to have a baby exhibit colicky behavior when switching to formula, because it is much harder to digest. Perhaps you have already visited the pediatrician and he has suggested you switch to soy formula or Nutramigen. If you do this and your child continues to get sick– if switching brands and switching from milk-based, to soy-based, to Nutramigen does not solve the problem– then there may be a very good chance your baby is allergic to corn and/or MSG (Monosodium Glutamate). This proved to be true for our youngest child. In our case we saw complete resolution when we discontinued commercial formula and used organic whole milk.
This topic was born out of a strange coincidence that occurred in my house several months ago. My oldest child had suffered for quite some time with all kinds of illnesses, despite the fact that he was solely breastfed the first year of his life. I was incorrectly told once by a doctor that his colic was due to a milk allergy/intolerance. Armed with this information I dutifully kept him away from cow’s milk based products for the next two years. What I later learned when I had him properly tested for food allergies/intolerances (because the ill-health never really went away, just morphed from one form to another) is that he actually suffers from both a wheat and corn allergy, not milk.
At the same time I learned about my oldest son’s allergies, my youngest son, at about nine-months old, had just about weaned himself. I had begun to give him commercial milk-based formula and he abruptly got sick with an ear infection and bad case of eczema. (For various reasons, I don’t believe in giving soy-based formulas to infants.) The doctor then prescribed Nutramigen and this only complicated matters with his skin rash. I immediately stopped the formula and put him temporarily on a non-dairy milk while I waited for his system to clear. After about a week I saw improvement, but his skin did not completely clear up for almost three weeks. Once his skin looked great I reintroduced cow’s milk, this time I carefully selected organic whole milk. I then added my own vitamin and mineral supplements to his diet. He was able to tolerate this change with no problem. This is how I determined that my youngest son must also be allergic to corn or very sensitive to MSG. He now has a beautiful bum that is rash and eczema free. He sleeps and eats great and no longer cries or regularly spits up.
Many pediatricians recommend avoiding corn in your baby’s diet until he/she is at least one year old. But the irony of this is that commercial formula manufacturers regularly use corn starch, corn syrup solids, and even soy in all of their formulas, even their most hypoallergenic varieties. And to further complicate matters, corn is not recognized as a significant allergen and is not required to be listed on labels for people with multiple allergies. You will find warnings for wheat, gluten, nuts, milk, eggs, soy, shellfish, but not corn. Perhaps it is because corn makes up nearly 80% of our modern convenience food products. It is in nearly everything we buy to heat up and serve, nearly everything we use to flavor our foods. It is also in nearly all of our baby hygiene products and powders.
If you or anyone else in your family has severe allergies or intolerances to certain foods/chemicals then you should seriously consider the corn/MSG connection. The risk of your baby experiencing an allergic reaction or digestive intolerance to corn is greater if you have a family history of any type of allergy, especially skin rashes like eczema and histamine-type reactions.
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Thanks to this website I’ve found the answer for my son who’s now been fed the homemade formula on the West A. Price website for almost 4 months. He has a confirmed corn, egg, soy & peanut allergy and I had the same experience with skin and vommitting. I would encourage any parent to consider homemade formula before commercial formula if you’re not able to nurse. He and his twin sister are so chubby now with the clearest skin ever. I never thought it would happen a few months ago! My doctor was also very apathetic about my concerns so I say go with your parental instincts!
This info is very valuable to me. I have been thrown in so many different routes by doctors and they are all obviously just trying to give me a quick answer about my 4 month old son. I was told that he has acid reflux and allergy to cows milk because of trouble breathing and feeding, as well as eczema. They told me to switch him to soy. I switched him to soy and the eczema he produced is now severe. They told me to get all types of creams that aren’t doing anything but making his situation worse. Turns out there is no acid reflux (oh, I was also told to feed him Mylanta before every feeding and start him on cereal at only two months old). I did not listen to the doctors because I know my son best. His breathing problems was caused from a clavical fracture during birth where the doctor told me it happens all the time and is normal. Not so, it caused him to get torticollis and no doctor would agree so I took it upon myself to do research and strengthen his neck muscles myself through therapy. Since I have done so (2 months later) his breathing prblems have diminished and my new pediatrician says, hey! I think your son my have had a slight case of torticollis!Wow. Anyway, I switched him to soy but his eczema keeps getting worse. I don’t trust the doctors, these days there are only a few who are actually “caring” for their patients. I looked for some corn free formulas but there is really nothing organic that I can feed him until he is 1 years old. Is there something out there for a 4 month old? If not, should I go back to milk based formula and give him something organic and natural to strengthen his immune and digestive system like something with fennel seeds since eczema is actually a problem with the immune system?
Gina,
I am sorry for the delayed response–
If you haven’t already discovered them, the Weston Price Foundation is a good resourse for homemade formula. http://www.westonaprice.org/children/index.html#fd
You can also check out Dr. Sears. He has a recipe as well. If cow’s milk is a problem too, you may find luck with goat milk. It is closer than cow’s milk to breast milk and easier to digest. Goat milk is laking vital nutrients and is not recommended as a stand alone for formula replacement. I’ve never given formula to an infant so young so I can’t advise you from personal experience. Hopefully this will help you as you research more. Best of luck.
This information is invaluable to me, thank you! We just determined through a skin test that my 6 month old is allergic to corn as well as soy, eggs and peanuts. The allergy doctor is saying that corn syrup and corn maltodextrn are probably okay since it’s just the sugar extracted from the corn. I’m full of anxiety about changing his formula once again as Nutramigen is loaded with corn starch. Alimentum is corn free I gather? My story is the same… eczema, itchiness, sleepless nights all since I stopped nursing. I am accustomed to food avoidance since my 6 year old has a cows milk allergy… do I have to avoid every element of corn or is the sugar okay? And on that subject has it been concluded that is soy oil refined enough to permit as well for a soy allergy?
Nickie,
It is my experience that you have to remove it all. I have talked to countless allergy sufferers and countless parents and they overwhelmingly agree. Until the child has been completely rid of the food for quite some time (at least 6 months) you really don’t know how much it affects them. For example, we had to remove even citric acid, yet over time we realized that vanilla was okay as long as we baked it. Fresh vanilla bothers him. I would avoid corn sugars like the plague. I have yet to meet a corn allergy sufferer who could tolerate them. Many have said their doctor’s advice was the same as yours. In our case our baby had issues with soy as well. Remember, the formula is given to your baby as a staple food, every day, multiple times. Any allergen in the ingredients is not a good idea. In our case our son was nearly a year old when we switched to organic whole milk. There are countless websites offering homemade formulas available to choose from. You will need the advice of a nutritionist to determine what would work best for your baby. If you have introduced solids then you are already in a good position to giving her a balanced nutritional diet without using commercial formula.
How did you determine that it was definitly a corn allergy? My 5-month old has been on Alimentum RTF for several months. We recently tried the powdered form, and after 2 days, she developed watery eyes, sneezing, nasal congestion, and occasional red blotches on her face. I was wondering if this is a corn allergy or just a cold with bad timing.
Is she also eating any solid foods? Have you recently begun formula after having nursed exclusively for five months? Red blotchy cheeks can be a sign of an allergy/intolerance (as increased histamine production is a sure sign). It could also be a cold, and if it is it will clear up in 7-10 days. Our son’s sensitivity to formula showed up within a week of introduction and escalated quite rapidly for the three weeks he was on regular formula. I also thought it was a cold at first, but our son developed such a bad form of eczema all over his thighs, too. All formulas also contain soy, as far as I know, but do check to be sure. Our son is also very sensitive to soy products. A rash that worsens, develops into bad diarrhea, a red, blotchy bum that easily cracks and oozes, these are some signs of a food intolerance/allergy. To determine whether or not corn is really the culprit, I suggest you switch back to the only corn-free formula on the market (cow’s milk based) that Christina suggests–Alimentum ready to feed, or talk with your doctor about making your own trial formula at home that is corn-free and soy-free.
Hope this helps.
There is a family at our church with a 5 or 6 mo. old baby who is allergic to just about everything - milk, soy, and now testing for a corn allergy. Mom has been breastfeeding and can now eat only bananas pretty much, as that is all the baby will tolerate. Mom is losing weight - she can only eat bananas and maybe 1 other thing - that’s it. Any ideas? What is this baby going to eat? Apparently, they’ve checked out all the forumulas, and they all contain something the baby is allergic to. This is a dire situation. Thank you for any insight you might have.
Here is another blog post that might help a few of you struggling to figure out what is wrong with your baby:
http://surefoodsliving.com/2007/05/07/corn-and-my-baby/#comment-165
We are the foster parents of a two month old, WONDERFUL little girl who is allergic to corn. We finally got her on Alimentum READY TO FEED and switched to corn-product free diapers. We also ditched the baby wipes and use only mild soaps with no corn deriviaties. She is doing so very well now!
Before we figured out the allergy, she was passing blood in her stool, had projectile vomitting, her skin was raw, cracked and oozing in some places and just before we switched to corn-free products, her face and diaper area became red and swollen.
Thank you for having the information about corn allergy on the internet!! It is very helpful!!